A report to the latest meeting of the LGA's executive advisory board said it was ‘offering some support to councils in systems which cannot agree the use of the BCF'.

The report read: ‘The LGA has reminded DHSC and NHS England of the rules and original purpose of the fund, and advocated strongly against the behaviour shown by some ICBs.'

Fledgling ICBs, which became statutory almost two years ago, have been told to make 30% cuts in their running costs by April 2025, with no uplift for inflation, meaning the real terms cut will be much higher.

Chief executive of Warrington BC, Steve Broomhead, who is a board member of Cheshire and Merseyside ICB, said: ‘It's a project in development. There are tensions around cost shunting. We'd like them to make more effort on prevention.'

One ICB chair said: ‘The tensions are structural. Nobody talks about local government in the NHS-only meetings, which I find very strange. What we're asked to do is almost entirely NHS. They are the things that NHS England asks us to do. Nothing matters as much as waiting lists and cancer waits. No matter what they say it's very top-down.'